Be Careful What You Wish For
by Tori Stone
Summary: ...'cause you just might get it. T for swearing.


**_This A/N is a note to the readers who follow my other stories, Wide Awake and TWKTIOK._**

Okay, so, I posted this last night without a commentary. Mostly because it was nearly midnight and I had to get up super early this morning and I just didn't have the strength left to write one. But it's nearly one here right now and I'm in my school's library eating lunch, so I'm gonna fix some grammatical errors I've found rereading this as well as letting you guys know what's about to go on here in the next few weeks.

One of my very best friends was diagnosed with a very serious terminal type of cancer about a week and a half before my spring break. The doctors said that there wasn't really much for them to do, other than to make him as comfortable as possible in his last few days. There were a lot of tears. A lot.

He passed less than a week after the diagnosis. For a few days, I was pretty stagnant in everything I was working on. I just lost my inspiration. I had a trip to Houston planned with two friends from a seperate circle of friends, and so I decided that I would go to try and get my mind off of everything that had gone on. While I was there, I was hit with depression and anxiety.

But I came back and I took the rest of that week off from work and I really took time to be with myself and come to terms with everything that happened. While I don't think I'll ever be okay with it, per se, it's given me a chance to see things in a different light. That being said, I started working on two different pieces in the middle of the week. They are both very dark, one a lot more so than the other. The lighter one, while I originally planned for it to be a one-shot, is shaping up to be a multi-chapter. The darker one is going to be a one-shot.

I won't post either one until they are both completely finished. I pouring my all into them at the moment. The day he passed, when I got the news, I hit the ground. I've never cried harder in my entire life. And in my head, I just kept thinking "no one should have to feel like this. No one should have to deal with this."

That's going to be a major theme of those two pieces. What's fair and what isn't, why terrible things happen to good people. Sometimes, life is amazing, incredible, a gift worth more than all the money in the world.

And other times, life sucks. Hard.

That's all I'm going to say on this for right now. This piece hit me in the middle of the night and it's the first time I've really smiled since he passed. I just had to share it with you guys.

**I don't own Danny Phantom.**

**Enjoy!**

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**Be Careful What You Wish For**

**April 3, 2013**

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One Saturday morning in the middle of July, Sam woke with a frown on her face. This was not entirely unusual, considering she was a goth and all (not to mention the self-proclaimed queen of darkness), but this time was different. She'd had a dream. Not an altogether unpleasant dream, because it was entirely about Danny, but it was very...unsatisfying. She kept her eyes closed well after she was awake, trying to ignore the stubborn rays of sunlight that had somehow fought their way through her tightly drawn black curtains, and sighed. In the dream, she finally mustered up the courage to confess her feelings to Danny, just to have him quickly shut her down.

"It's not because I don't feel that way about you...because I do," Dream Danny explained, his face blank and expressionless. "I just can't afford to have a girlfriend right now. I'd be putting you in danger, because my enemies would use you against me. Besides, I'd hardly have any time to spare for you, since I'm pretty much fighting ghosts twenty-four-seven now."

She rolled to her side and released another sigh, reluctant to open her eyes. She could hear the birds singing, loud and obnoxious. _One of those bastards is probably perched right on the ledge outside_, she thought with a disgruntled scowl._ Thing's lucky I don't believe in hurting animals, or else I'd kill it._

She opened her eyes slowly, enjoying the blurry outline of the room, before blinking rapidly. Something was out of place. She raised a hand to her face and clumsily wiped the sleep out of her eyes.

She was staring directly at a man's crotch.

She screamed incoherently and scrambled backwards. Blankets and sheets flew up as her limbs flailed, blocking her vision, as she fell backwards off the side of the bed. She could hear him talking, but his words were garbled through her hazy, sleep-riddled panic.

"SAM!" The man shouted. She went still immediately, her chest heaving. She could not see him over the side of her bed, but he did not seem to have gotten up. "_Relax_, okay? It's just me. It's just Danny."

She seized the side of her mattress and hauled herself up so that she was on her knees. Sure enough, Danny was sitting in a chair beside her bed, even with where her head had been moments before. He was in Fenton form, apparently in his pajamas (which were nothing more than a pair of black basketball shorts), looking thoroughly embarrassed. He let his dark hair fall into his eyes, a poor cover for the brilliant blush spreading across his face and down his neck. Small patches of his chest were even starting to redden.

"Danny?" She hissed, squinting in indignation. She was wearing nothing more than a very large T-Shirt and her underwear. "What the _hell_ are you doing here?"

"It's kind of a long story," He muttered, staring at his knees.

She climbed back onto the bed, pulling the blankets up around herself nervously. "Well you just scared the bejeezus out of me so I think you owe me an explanation."

He muttered something so quietly, Sam could barely make it out. She raised her eyebrows. "I kind of made a wish..." He repeated a little more loudly.

"What kind of wish?" She asked, suddenly suspicious. He glanced up at her, before dropping his gaze and sighing in defeat.

"Okay, last night Skulker came back. I guess he's pissed off that all these other ghosts have been around lately and he wanted some attention. Whatever. Anyways, He comes and we start fighting and it really wasn't a big deal. I didn't need your help or Tucker's help, I had him caught in like ten minutes. Flat. But...he kind of caught me with an ectoknife in the middle of the fight...again, _so_ not a big deal. I caught him and then I came over here to patch myself up. It was like three in the morning and I didn't want to wake you up, so I just flew in and got the first aid kit and I sat down at your desk to fix myself."

Sam glanced over his right shoulder. Her first aid kit was indeed sitting open on her desk, a few of its' contents spread across the previously clean surface. She looked back at him to find him proudly pointing to the area right above his left knee, tightly bandaged in a bit of her gauze.

"That's great. It doesn't explain why you're still here, though," She said. "It's nearly nine o'clock. You've been here for six hours."

"Right," He muttered, his face reddening again. "Well, you see...this is embarassing...I was almost done fixing myself when you started...talking."

She felt her own face start to flush. "What did I say?"

"You were kind of muttering. I didn't understand most of it, you kind of slurred the words a lot and it was too hard to decipher anything you were saying. It sounded like you were arguing with someone. And then you got really quiet. So I looked over at you and your eyes were closed but you had this look of...it was like...God, what's the word? You looked like you were in complete..._anguish_, that's it. You just looked anguished. And I kind of froze, I didn't know what was happening, you looked like you were about to cry. And right as I was about to wake you up, you said one word really loud and really clear." She looked at him expectantly, heart thumping uneasily in her throat. "My name. You said _'Danny'_ and then you started crying real softly.

"I didn't know what to do. Tucker told me once that you're never supposed to wake someone up when they're having a nightmare, but I wanted to. I don't know what you were dreaming about but I know it had something to do with me, and I wanted to make you feel better. So I rolled over and I took your hand and you got really still and then I just started whispering to you. I told you I wouldn't leave your side, and I didn't."

She remained very still, examining his face carefully. Something was flickering in his eyes.

"You said something about a wish, though," She said slowly, filing away what he said for later review and subsequent dissection. "I want to know about the wish."

He huffed and stared up at the ceiling. "It's stupid and embarrassing. Please don't make me say it."

"You're sitting in my room, shirtless, and you just told me you spent the last six hours watching me sleep and listening to me sleep talk. Tell me about the wish before I report you to the police for being Edward Cullen."

He shivered, but did not look down from the ceiling. "Fine. But you repeat this to no one, do you understand?" She nodded emphatically, earning an exasperated eye-roll from Danny. "After...after like ten minutes, you stopped dreaming and you were just sleeping. And, yeah, fine, I'll admit that I was going a little Edward Cullen on you. It's just that you're, like, _super_ peaceful when you sleep and I'm used to the Chuck Norris ninja Sam I get in ghost fights. I haven't seen you look that calm and serene since Nocturn knocked everyone out in the entire city. And I was so tired. Sam, I was so friggin' tired. I just wasn't thinking straight."

"What did you _say_?" She demanded sharply.

"I said...'I wish I could stay right here forever.'" He mumbled, looking supremely ashamed of himself. "Desiree was right outside your window and...you know how the rest of the story goes."

Sam was able to keep herself composed for exactly five seconds before a light, bubbling laughter burst forward from her chest. "Oh my _God_!" She choked out between laughs.

"It's not funny!" Danny shouted indignantly, watching her roll to her side and clutch her stomach.

She was unable to answer.

"Oh my God...oh my God, I have to call Tucker!" She lunged forward and seized her phone, ripping it off of the charger and scrambling out of bed.

"No!" Danny tried to grab at her, just to have her slip out of his grasp and stand just out of his reach. "The chair's not even moving, I'm literally stuck in this spot!"

"Forever, I know, I heard!" Sam dialed Tucker's number, still chortling as Danny growled and tried to swipe at her. "Oooh, you're _so_ scary!"

"Hello?"

"Tuck! What are you doing right now?"

"I'm actually almost at your house, I was gonna see if -"

"Great, that's perfect, when you get here, come straight to my room. The front door should be unlocked, both of my parents had tennis this morning and they never lock up behind themselves."

"What's going on?" Tucker asked, a note of apprehension in his voice. Danny was still shouting and struggling, but Sam was leaning against the door frame of her room, shaking her head and grinning from ear to ear.

"I don't want to ruin it for you. Hurry, okay?"

"I'm walking up the front steps right now."

"Wipe that _shit eating grin_ off your face," Danny snarled as Sam hung her phone up. "I hate you so much right now."

She tipped her head backwards and laughed. "S'not like there's a whole lot you can do about it at the moment," She taunted.

Tucker's footsteps began echoing up the stairs. "Don't, please, c'mon Sam!" Danny whispered, suddenly whining. "At least give me a shirt to put on!"

"Nah," She shook her head. Movement at the top of the staircase drew her attention away from the depths of her bedroom, just to find Tucker shuffling forward, quizzical look on his face. "Guess who Desiree's latest victim is?"

Tucker peered around the edge of her door frame. He let out a whooping laugh at the sight of his best friend shirtless and immobile on a chair in Sam's bedroom. "What did you _do_?"

"Shut up, I hate you!" Danny shouted back, his face the precise color of a beet. "I'm gonna kill both of you when I get out of this!"

He continued shouting threats of increasing creativity at them for another five minutes, during which Sam and Tucker leaned heavily on each other to keep from falling over with laughter.

"Oh my God, _ohh_, that's good," Tucker sighed, straightening and wiping a tear away from beneath the edge of his glasses. "Wow, that is _fantastic_."

"I know, right?" Sam nodded, glancing over at a fuming Danny. "Anyways, you were already coming over here,"

"Right, I was gonna see if you have the new Enemy Sniper game, it's not due to come out for another four months, but -"

"Spare me, I've had it for a week already. Let me get dressed and we can go play,"

"Sweet, I'll meet you downstairs. Danny," Tucker faced Danny and saluted, before chortling and jogging down the hall.

"Sam." Danny said as she loped gracefully into her closet. "Sam." She shut the closet door with a click, still grinning widely. "Sam, I know you can hear me. Sam. _Sam_." She slid into her shorts and yanked a sports bra on, before tugging the same T-Shirt over her head and reappearing from the depths of the closet. "Sam!"

"What is it, Danny?" She asked, feigning boredom with his situation.

"Um, I'd like to play the Enemy Sniper game, too," He mumbled, poking his lower lip out in a pathetic puppy-dog pout.

"What do you say when you want something?"

His puppy dog pout suddenly vanished, replaced with a disgruntled scowl. "Please." He spat.

"Desiree!" The wishing ghost suddenly appeared, grinning widely at the still scowling Danny.

"You rang?" She sang.

"I wish Danny wasn't stuck to this chair anymore."

"So you have wished it, so shall it be."

She snapped her fingers and instantly the room was full of smoke. Sam coughed and waved her hand before her face, trying to clear the air. Desiree had vanished. She spotted Danny standing and rubbing his backside, looking immensely releaved. "I think she did that just to mess with me," He groaned.

"Here," Sam threw him one of her larger shirts, which he quickly yanked over his head. "You done complaining now?"

"Only 'til Tucker starts cheating at the game," He said.

Sam pursed her lips, before nodding. "Fair enough."

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**Thanks for reading!**

**- Tori**


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